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Judge gives convicted murderer life in prison

A Washington County judge told a man convicted of shooting another man on New Year’s Eve that he had re-victimized the deceased and his family as he sentenced the defendant to life in prison today in Washington County Court.

Kyle Travis Eulitt, 24, was convicted of killing Ronald Joseph Watts after the two exchanged words at the Linden Apartments, located in the 800 block of Southeast Eighth Street on Dec. 31, 2010.

Eulitt was found guilty by a jury of his peers on Sept. 1 following several days of trial. The jury recommended Eulitt serve life in prison for the crime — a recommendation that Associate District Judge Russell Vaclaw formally passed today.

“At trial, despite all the overwhelming evidence against you, you made him (Watts) and his family victims all over again when you (attempted to) rest the fault on him,” Vaclaw told Eulitt as he announced the sentence.

“Then again today, you gave your statement again, making them victims again.”

Vaclaw called the killing “senseless” and said that “Mr. Watts should be alive right now.”

During the trial, several eyewitnesses testified that Eulitt shot Watts one time with a handgun and then fled the scene following an argument between the two.

The defense contended that Eulitt was acting in self defense, a contention that Eulitt himself repeated when he took the stand. Eulitt claimed that he shot Watts after Watts pointed a gun at him, and said that witnesses who stated Watts was unarmed were “lying.”

A witness who was with Watts at the time of the shooting testified that the two were coming down the stairs of the apartments when they were confronted by Eulitt and another man, and that after initial words were exchanged, he told Watts, “Joe, he’s got a gun, let’s just go.” He said Watts was insistent that “he had kids that play in the parking lot and he (Eulitt) didn’t need to have a gun there.”

The witness said that after Eulitt brandished the gun, Watts asked him what he was going to do with it, at which time Eulitt shot him. He said that Eulitt then “took off running.”

Two state’s witnessses and Eulitt himself took the stand at today’s hearing.

Keri McBride, Watts’ girlfriend and the mother of his children, said that Watts was a “really good father” and told Eulitt, “I hope you wake up every day and think about what you did.”

Rhonda Vogt, Watts’ sister, told Eulitt, “An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth would have been an easy way out for you. You wanted to be a big man and carry a gun, but you won’t man up and take responsibility,” she said.

Eulitt will remain in the custody of the Washington County Sheriff’s Office until he is transferred to the Lexington reception facility to begin serving his sentence.